Clara's Epilogue
by Hediru
Summary: SPOILERS FOR S. 9, EP. 10, FACE THE RAVEN! I had some feels after watching this episode, and decided to work them out here. Clara gets a happy ending, and maybe the Doctor does as well.


**So I literally just finished watching the heart wrenching newest episode, and I had some serious feels. I haven't cried like that since Amy and Rory were taken by Weeping Angels, or David Tennant's regeneration, or Doomsday (thought the first was still the worst.) And I'm not even a Clara fan, though I'm not a hater. This is just an epilogue that I hope will give Clara some peace at last.**

 **I do not own Doctor Who.**

"Doctor, everything you're about to say, I know. Don't taint my memory. Be a Doctor, not a Warrior. This is not your fault, it's mine. I did this! Be brave without me. Goodbye, Doctor." With these and other heartbreaking words of farewell, Clara Oswald walked out into the street and embraced her death, arms open wide in welcome.

The pain when the raven hit her was unlike anything that she had ever felt before, and she doubled over in pain and screamed. The pain subsided as quickly as it had come, and she had an eerie sense of deja vu as flashes of her many echoes from when she had stepped into the Doctor's timestream ran through her mind. Then everything went black.

-DW-

She awoke some time later in the most comfortable bed that she had ever slept in, thinking it was all a dream. She gasped, however, when she opened her eyes and realized that she didn't know where she was. Soon, she became aware that she was not alone.

"Welcome home, Clara, my Clara," a familiar voice called out. Clara jolted straight up in bed, and looked into the greenish michevious eyes of her first Doctor, who was grinning at her manically, bowtie and all.

"Doctor?" she ventured.

"Ya miss me?" he teased. "Clara Oswald, welcome to the afterlife!"

Taking her arm like a gentleman, he took her out of her gorgeous bedroom, walked through an even more gorgeous mansion, and out into a beautiful garden. There were people everywhere as far as the eye could see: some were gardening, some were walking and laughing with friends, some were playing music and dancing, still more were reading, writing, or engaging in other solitary pursuits. Some were dressed in very unusual clothing: one gentleman had a ridiculously long scarf, another wore a cape, another (actually there were two of them, twins perhaps?) wore a pinstriped suit with trainers, and still another wore a coat that put Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to shame. She recognized these and other faces as the faces of the Doctor from her time in his timestream. There were others, too. There was a young couple: she was a gorgeous ginger, and he was very good looking too, despite the nose. There was a brunette walking a robotic dog. There was a blonde in a pink hoodie snuggling with a Doctor in a leather jacket. (Clara noticed that the blonde also spent a lot of time with the pinstriped twins.) There was a young man in a colorful shirt with a blue star on his chest. There was even a gigantic head in a jar, or at least she thought there was until she blinked and he became a _very_ attractive man!

"Welcome to my family," her bowtie clad Doctor crowed. "Welcome to my version of paradise. Everyone I've ever been is here. Everyone I've ever loved is also here. Everyone that they've ever loved is here. This is where my past incarnations and former companions and loved ones come to rest. Like I said, Clara Oswald, welcome home!"

She heard someone call out to her. "Mum! Dad!" she ran to their embrace. Not only were her parents here, but so were her grand parents, her great grandparents, and several great generations before that as well. She was amazed to see everyone again! As she was finishing hugging everyone, she heard someone clear their throat behind her.

She turned. "Danny," she breathed, as she ran to him and him to her. They crashed into each other with lips, tongues, and teeth clashing. This was the reunion she had been waiting for!

Some time later, after reuniting with her family, friends, and love, she slipped away to find her first Doctor. He was beaming at her. He looked so different than she remembered: lighter, perhaps. She had never seen him so relaxed, comfortable, and content. "You look good, Doctor," she said. "Real good!"

He laughed. Then he turned to her, eyes filled with sympathy. "I'll be alright, you know. The me you left behind. I'll be alright."

"How can you be so sure?" She asked, her eyes clearly filled with worry.

"Because that's what I do. You humans, you always leave me in the end, and sometimes how you leave me is harsh and cruel. But you never truly leave me. I don't ever learn of this place until I regenerate out, but I think that deep down, I know. Will I be sad for awhile? No, in fact, I'll likely be pretty darn depressed for awhile. But I will be alright. I will find someone else. I always do. It's my friends who keep me going, keep me fighting, and keep me strong. I can't live without them, so there'll always be more!"

With that, he hugged his impossible girl.

-DW-

Somewhere across time and space in the land of the living, the Doctor who had just lost his Clara was grieving in his TARDIS. Yet, somehow, he found a reason to smile. His impossible girl was finally at peace. Maybe someday, he would be also.


End file.
